Logan County Commissioners approve marijuana ordinance, resolution

Complaints heard over prohibiting marijuana facilities and possession on county property

Callie Jones Journal-Advocate staff writer

Posted:
05/15/2013 08:55:04 AM MDT

STERLING — The Logan County Commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance prohibiting marijuana facilities and a resolution prohibiting the possession, consumption, use or display of marijuana, during their business meeting on Tuesday.

The ordinance, which was approved on second reading, prohibits the operation of marijuana cultivation, product manufacturing and testing facilities, as well as retail marijuana stores, within unincorporated Logan County.

Commissioner Dave Donaldson pointed out the ordinance doesn't “infringe on the private possession and the amount of plants that are allowed to be grown.”

“We're not banning it in the county in its entirety; it's just for those retail operations.”

During a public hearing before the ordinance was passed, Sterling resident Riste Capps spoke out against both the ordinance and the regulation. She pointed out that there are many people in the county who would have liked to comment about the issue, but couldn't come to the commissioners' morning meeting because they had to work, or they were concerned that if they spoke about the issue publicly they could lose their job.

Capps shared comments that were brought to the Logan County Citizens Oversight Committee, but noted the comments don't represent the opinions of people associated with LCCOC.

One of the issues she brought up is the new revenue stream and tax base that marijuana operations would provide for Logan County, which would be worth “millions of dollars.”

Advertisement

“By adopting Ordinance 2013-01 without a vote of the people, Logan County Commissioners are making the decision to deny Logan County millions in revenue and much needed jobs,” Capps said. “Some feel if Logan County does not allow this new revenue stream, all the money will go to neighbors who will.”

She asked the commissioners to put the issue on the election ballot, so citizens could decide whether to reject or accept marijuana facilities in the county.

The ordinance points to the 2012 General Election as proof Logan County voters don't want marijuana related businesses, because 56 percent of the county's voters rejected Amendment 64. Capps said the 2012 vote was to determine whether or not the people of Colorado wanted a Constitutional Amendment to legalize marijuana and had nothing to do with the question of whether or not people in Logan County want marijuana related businesses.

She also brought up a concern about the regulation, questioning how illegal possession or use of marijuana on county property would be enforced.

“The intent of Amendment 64 is to regulate marijuana much like alcohol. Perhaps, the commissioners could fashion local regulations accordingly,” Capps suggested.

Additionally, she pointed out that Amendment 64 stipulates the sale of marijuana will be taxed and that the first $40 million of each tax year will go to school construction.

“If Logan County bans businesses that collect this tax, will our schools have to go without these dollars?”

Lastly, she noted the State Legislature hasn't fully finished their work on the regulatory structure/taxing and suggested the commissioners table the proposed ordinance and resolution until all has been decided at the state level.

After the public comment period ended, Commissioner Rocky Samber pointed out that federal law prohibits marijuana and talked about problems associated with marijuana.

“My background tells me that the physical and mental problems associated with prolonged marijuana use, trumps the economic benefits, if there would be any economic benefits,” he said.

Samber also noted that in November 61 percent of people in the unincorporated county “voted to have no marijuana and so I don't think that that has changed.”

“We do not control the individual consumption, we do control the business aspect and I do not think that the constituents of Logan County wish for that business model to be in the unincorporated areas of the county.”

Donaldson agreed that that vote “is a good and accurate reflection of the feelings of the constituents in Logan County and that's what is driving this.”

He said the fact that the election was just six months ago should be taken into consideration, “without going to the expense of conducting another election on this specific issue.”

Commissioner Gene Meisner agreed with the other two.

“I stand firm on this,” he said. “I believe that if we need marijuana use, it should be in a pill form, come out of a drug store, with a prescription only.”

The regulation that was also approved prohibits possession, consumption, use or display of marijuana on county-owned property, such as the County Justice Center, county-leased portions of the Sterling Tourist Information Center, Courthouse, Fairgrounds, Heritage Center, Landfill, Human Services and CSU Extension building's. It doesn't prohibit marijuana on county roads.

Before the board approved the policy as written, Donaldson brought up Capp's concern again, about how the county would enforce illegal possession of marijuana.

“If it's not displayed, consumed or used, that would be a hard topic to enforce, just the possession part of it.”

“I don't see possession as something that I think the constituents would want on county property,” Samber responded. “I don't think possession is necessary.”

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.